Vion Pharma Dn 24% After Presentation At Conference
By K. Maxwell Murphy Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VION, news, msgs) couldn't explain its stock drop Thursday, a spokeswoman said.
"We're mystified, too," said Lisa Bradlow of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, speaking on behalf of Vion.
Volume began increasing in the selloff at around 11:30 a.m. EST, about the time
Vion began a presentation at the J.P. Morgan H&Q healthcare conference in San
Francisco.
All of the news in the presentation on the status of Phase I trials of its leading
anticancer agents was good, said Bradlow, and the trials and tests are "totally on
schedule."
The agents have proven to be safe, and are "right in line with trials," she added.
Bradlow said she knew of no element of the presentation which would lead to the
selloff.
Analysts following the company were immediately unavailable.
Shares of Vion recently traded at $9.50, down $2.69 or 22.1%, on Nasdaq volume of 771,200 shares, compared with a daily average of 187,708. Shares rose 2.1% Wednesday.
President and Chief Executive Alan Kessman said the drop in Vion's stock price "makes absolutely no sense to me." All of the news released in the presentation at the J.P. Morgan H&Q healthcare conference was, "in our opinion, very positive," he said.
The Phase I trials of the company's unarmed TAPET therapy, which uses a bacteria known to seek out solid tumors as a delivery device for an anticancer agent, are proceeding on schedule, and the company will proceed with Phase I trials of bacteria armed with anticancer agents like 5-flurocytosine, Kessman said.
Investors expecting the company to announce more progress than it did must not have understood the complex way the therapy works and the timeline of clinical trials, he said. Although determining effectiveness is always a bonus, Phase I trials aren't intended to show effectiveness, but to obtain the strongest, most reliable data to proceed to Phase II trials, said Kessman. Those familiar with the story ought to have been "very pleased," he contended.
Eventually a development-stage drug company like Vion would look to partner itself with a larger pharmaceutical
concern, signing licensing and marketing agreements, Kessman said. Although he said Vion has several parties it
speaks to regularly, it hasn't partnered up with anyone.
For Vion shareholders, he said, the best course of action would be to wait "as long as possible" to team up because patents on some drugs compatible with TAPET therapy might expire, or Vion might find its own compatible anticancer agent. |
